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UPDATE:
- This case was dismissed June 15, 2021, with prejudice in favor of Ancestry.com.
Ancestry.com wants a class action lawsuit it’s facing to be dismissed on grounds the data it collects is already publicly available.
In a motion filed Monday, attorneys for the company defended Ancestry.com’s practice of gathering high school yearbook information and repackaging it as part of their family tree-researching service.
The class action lawsuit is “intuitively ill founded” because the details gleaned from the yearbooks can be found with a few clicks on the computer, Ancestry.com said in the motion.
Lead plaintiffs Meredith Callahan and Lawrence Abraham filed the class action lawsuit, claiming unjust enrichment and privacy intrusion, among other things, in November. In their initial complaint, they argue Ancestry.com never seeks permission to use this information, which they say is quite detailed.
Abraham and Callahan allege millions of such records are used by Ancestry.com and include names, cities of residence, photos and school names. In California, they say, Ancestry.com holds 60 million of these types of records.
Callahan specifically reports finding 26 records on herself alone, including details on her after-school activities and the fact she graduated valedictorian.
Ancestry.com says this information is not protected, however, citing a Southern California District Court ruling in Rondberg v. McCoy: “[a] matter that is already public or that has previously become part of the public domain is not private.”
They further cite a finding in Jackson v. Loews Hotels Inc. from California’s Central District, which says because “the information at issue is already a matter of public record, its disclosure cannot cause harm.”
“As a preliminary matter, nothing about the benign yearbook excerpts at issue is inherently harmful,” Ancestry.com says in its motion to dismiss. “Yearbook information is not private. The very purpose of a yearbook is public distribution, whether assessed by common experience or accepted definitions.”
The class action lawsuit against Ancestry.com also alleges the company has become unjustly enriched by using this data.
Callahan, in particular, took issue with Ancestry.com’s use of a family gravestone photo in an advertisement she was delivered.
Ancestry.com defends against these separate claims from Callahan and Abraham about unjust enrichment. In their motion to dismiss, the company says there is no cause for such a claim under California law.
The motion further states the plaintiffs fail to have legal standing in their class action lawsuit because they haven’t proved any injury.
“That plaintiffs’ already-public yearbook information merely exists in Ancestry’s database is the proverbial tree falling in unoccupied woods — without further allegations of access this mere data storage could not possibly have caused plaintiffs any injury,” the motion argues.
The use of yearbook photos without permission is the subject of another class action lawsuit Callahan and Abraham are a part of. They’re also accusing Classmates.com of similar practices they claim are an invasion of privacy.
Do you think the judge assigned to this class action lawsuit should dismiss the case? Do you agree with the defendant’s argument yearbook photos are intended to be public? Let us know why or why not in the comments below.
Counsel representing the plaintiffs in the Ancestry.com privacy invasion class action lawsuit are Benjamin Osborn and Michael Ram of Morgan & Morgan.
The Ancestry.com Class Action Lawsuit is Callahan, et al. v. Ancestry.com Operations Inc., et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-08437, in the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
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5 thoughts onAncestry.com Wants Privacy Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed
Just FYI: A dozen years ago, Classmates,com solicited high school yearbooks from owners so they could copy and sell. They paid $100 plus round-trip postpaid mailing for each they still needed. They bought 3 Miami books from me and 2 Ardsley, NY ones from my then- girlfriend. Don’t know if autographs were removed before reprinting.
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I would add MyHeritage to this as well. I never used their service , but they sent an advertisement or link to my name that appears in the google search of my name. Upon clicking that, all my high school photos immediately appear unsolicited. So anyone googles my name immediately brings up my yearbook photos. I never consented to this and it is a gross invasion of my privacy. It has caused me trouble and is absolutely not benign.
To be fair, they later did answer my email and removed the listing.